Editing Anne Brontë (section)

==Family tragedies==
Branwell's persistent drunkenness disguised the decline of his health and he died on 24 September 1848.<ref name="Barker 568">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 568</ref> His sudden death shocked the family. He was 31. The cause was recorded as chronic bronchitis{{snd}}[[marasmus]],{{clarify|date=December 2020}} but was probably [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="Biography of Anne Brontë">{{cite web
|url=http://www.mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk/anne/annebiog.html
|title=Biography of Anne Brontë
|work=mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk
|access-date=8 October 2009
|archive-date=27 November 2020
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127013939/http://www.mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk/anne/annebiog.html
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

The family suffered from coughs and colds during the winter of 1848, and Emily became very ill. She worsened over two months and rejected medical aid until the morning of 19 December.{{clarify|reason=nonsensical chronology|date=December 2020}} She was very weak and said that "if you will send for a doctor, I will see him now".<ref name="Barker 576">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 576</ref> But Emily died at about two o'clock that afternoon, aged 30.<ref name="Barker 576"/>

Emily's death deeply affected Anne. Her grief undermined her physical health.<ref>Gaskell EC. The Life of Charlotte Brontë: author of 'Jane Eyre,' 'Shirley,' 'Villette,' 'The Professor,' etc., Elder Smith, 1896, p. 287 [https://archive.org/details/lifecharlottebr04gaskgoog read online or download]</ref> Over Christmas Anne had influenza. Her symptoms intensified and in early January her father sent for a [[Leeds]] physician. The doctor diagnosed advanced [[tuberculosis|consumption]] with little hope of recovery. Anne met the news with characteristic determination and self-control.<ref name="Ann">
{{cite web
 |url=http://www.annebronte.scarborough.co.uk/ 
 |title=Ann Brontë Remembered in Scarborough 
 |work=annebronte.scarborough.co.uk 
 |access-date=23 August 2012 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728073036/http://www.annebronte.scarborough.co.uk/ 
 |archive-date=28 July 2012 }}</ref>{{clarify|date=December 2020}} However, in her letter to Ellen Nussey she expressed her frustrated ambitions:

{{blockquote|I have no horror of death: if I thought it inevitable I think I could quietly resign myself to the prospect&nbsp;... But I wish it would please God to spare me not only for Papa's and Charlotte's sakes but because I long to do some good in the world before I leave it. I have many schemes in my head for future practise{{snd}}humble and limited indeed{{snd}}but still I should not like them all to come to nothing, and myself to have lived to so little purpose. But God's will be done.<ref name="Barker 592">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 592</ref>}}

Unlike Emily, Anne took all the recommended medicines and followed the advice she was given.<ref name="Alexander & Smith, 72">Alexander & Smith, '' The Oxford Companion to the Brontës'', p. 72</ref> She also wrote her last poem, ''A dreadful darkness closes in'', in which she deals with being terminally ill.<ref name="Alexander & Smith, 170">Alexander & Smith, '' The Oxford Companion to the Brontës'', p. 170</ref> Her health fluctuated for months, but she grew thinner and weaker.